Apple To Resist India Order To Preload State-Run App As Political Outcry Builds (reuters.com)
- Reference: 0180269397
- News link: https://apple.slashdot.org/story/25/12/02/2214241/apple-to-resist-india-order-to-preload-state-run-app-as-political-outcry-builds
- Source link: https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/apple-resist-india-order-preload-state-run-app-political-outcry-builds-2025-12-02/
> In the wake of the criticism, India's telecom minister Jyotiraditya M. Scindia on Tuesday said the app was a "voluntary and democratic system," adding that users can choose to activate it and can "easily delete it from their phone at any time." At present, the app can be deleted by users. Scindia did not comment on or clarify the November 28 confidential directive that ordered smartphone makers to start preloading it and ensure "its functionalities are not disabled or restricted."
>
> Apple however does not plan to comply with the directive and will tell the government it does not follow such mandates anywhere in the world as they raise a host of privacy and security issues for the company's iOS ecosystem, said two of the industry sources who are familiar with Apple's concerns. They declined to be named publicly as the company's strategy is private. "Its not only like taking a sledgehammer, this is like a double-barrel gun," said the first source.
[1] https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/apple-resist-india-order-preload-state-run-app-political-outcry-builds-2025-12-02/
[2] https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/12/01/0633231/india-orders-mobile-phones-preloaded-with-government-app-to-ensure-cyber-safety
Apple does not preload apps (Score:3)
Only mediocre U2 albums.
Re: Apple does not preload apps (Score:3)
It's almost funny now that this was controversial then, with all the crap that every tech vendor preloads and the ai they cram into everything and all the other enshitification.
The next couple of years (Score:3)
The next couple of years are going to be hellish nightmares, from the looks of it.
EU trying to outdo dictatorships in privacy invasions, India pushing gov spyware onto your phone, online privacy and anonymity being undermined and erased everywhere⦠it is a very sad thought that most human generations will not get to experience the internet of the 80s, 90s, 00s and a bit of the 10s, when it was the most unbelievably awesome thing humanity has ever seen.
Now quickly followed by becoming the most dystopian nightmare.
Re:The next couple of years (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, its amazing how they turned something so positive into something so bad.
What really sucks is that those young people will grow up and never realize it could be different, and it actually was.
Re: (Score:2)
Careful with those sepia-tinted glasses. Revisionist history is addicting.
Until the early 90s, the Internet was impenetrable for the non-technical. Telnet, gopher, etc... downloading your first nekkid picture in 160x100 and 256 colors usually meant learning uudecode. After that, the merry ground of usability jokes continued for a decade. From the terrible interfaces of Compuserve and AOL, to EA insisting on a 2MB splash screen through 14.4k modems, to shockwave everything... pop up cascades that could take
Re: (Score:3)
Yes indeed, would vote you up, but have already commented here.
US I think is the only place with enshrined freedom of speech into the Constitution and still pressure is mounting - and I do not single out any side here.
EU is as usual "protecting" and the UK full speed ahead into "V for Vendetta" in order not to "offend".
Until late 80s, "Arpa/Internet" was restricted (Score:1)
Until the late 1980s/early 1990s, the "Internet" - IPv4 - was pretty much restricted in the United States to universities, the government, and to companies doing work with the government. Your average Joe Citizen couldn't get access without becoming a student or getting a job from one of the companies with access.
Advertising and all that advertising pays for would come later.
Someone else already covered the fact that the pre-web internet was pretty inaccessible (in the "too much technical mumbo-jumbo" sens
Re: The next couple of years (Score:2)
Let's not forget The EU's support for genocidal nutbags - this could be a new growth area given that people are awakening and are less ready to believe government propaganda or outright lies.
Re: (Score:2)
No, he's talking about actual genocide, not the sick inversion in which Israel is falsely accused of genocide.
Re: The next couple of years (Score:1)
I think that writers of dystopian novels should take the hint that governments are tone-deaf when it comes to warnings of how bad things could get - instead seeing every prediction of bad things as an implementation manual.
Re: The next couple of years (Score:2)
It seems that most people don't see the drawbacks or consider the declines to be inevitable. Or they're too focussed on making money from those declines.
Re: The next couple of years (Score:1)
I'd be interested to see if writers could put their energies into imagining the best possible futures, would governments implement the changes needed to converge on these.
Re: (Score:2)
I guess I'm a bit more pessimistic. I'm not saying that every single politician is bad, but it seems that dark triad/tetrad types gravitate towards authoritarian power, while many in government are there for self-enrichment, and others just create huge regulatory bureaucracy that often doesn't add much value. This seems to be the majority of human nature: a lot of people simply can't think or choose not to do so.
\o/ (Score:2)
Apple should do it but only if the Indian government agrees to allow Apple to introduce arbitrary (*) legislation into the Indian political system that contains potentially-secret clauses.
After all, politics and smartphone operating systems are general skills
(*) from India's perspective - at least legislation which Apple thinks it's best but may not overlap - at all - with India's plans for the country.
What about Russia (Score:4, Interesting)
> Apple however does not plan to comply with the directive and will tell the government it does not follow such mandates anywhere in the world..."
I was under the impression [1]Apple has to pre-install the Russian MAX messaging app [reuters.com] on all mobile phones and tablets in Russia as of this past September.
[1] https://www.reuters.com/technology/russia-orders-state-backed-max-messenger-app-whatsapp-rival-pre-installed-phones-2025-08-21/
If you want to do business (Score:3)
In a foreign country, you have to follow their laws, just as foreign businesses must do in the US.
Re: (Score:1)
And this is why your a cheap little coward living in mama's basement in your 40's.
Re: (Score:2)
If Apple took an ethical stance those billions of Indians deprived of Apple products would soon force a change to this mandatory spyware policy. When you've got a hundred billion in the bank and the rest of the world is looking on, maybe doing the right thing isn't so unthinkably farfetched.
Re: (Score:3)
Particularly the "move all production out of the country" part, which accounts for 20% of Apple's total production (and it's growing), and $20 billion worth of iPhones (85% of which is exported).
End users will put a lot of pressure on the government if they can't get iPhones. The economic loss will put more.
Re: (Score:3)
Cheaper to just pay the bribes.
In America it's known as K-street. Or "donating" to an Inauguration Gala. Or hosting a high court judge in a European palace for a couple of weeks. Or giving decision makers absurd private sector salaries when they 'retire'. Or giving the Governor's wife a $200K no-show job. Pick your branch, there's a way.
In India the system is less formal.
Re: (Score:3)
> Sure and Apple as a foreign company can pack up, stop selling products in India and move all production out of the country.
Yes, like Google did in China.